One Sentence Media Reviews
Glorious old spy novel from the 20s, uneven and wordy but also fascinating, with some extremely funny and extremely touching moments.
Silly movie that definitely put all its budget into its heroic Samuel Becket-like never-ending car chase at the expense of story and pacing, but despite all that it has some great shots of Los Angeles and the people of the city in the 70s.
Came highly recommended but most certainly not for me; covid setting is way too soon for me to want to watch it, whole thing too stressful, characters hard to like slash embarrassing... I could see this working for other people and it's certainly well done but I doubt I'll try again.
Beautiful, florid, long, wordy, deep, incredibly well-acted and -read, thoroughly enjoyable if you're in the mood for a slow-burning family drama with a crazy royal family but maybe not if you're not.
You have to really want to learn about "product management" in the context of tech companies to get anything out of this manual, but I sort of did, and did, and my thinking did change in some helpful ways at work, and the cool part is that some of the big ideas here (the importance of product+engineering together continuously interviewing customers, especially) is also a big point from a book I read 3 years ago that really impressed me, Beyond Command and Control.
For film buffs this glimpse of Kubrick's style developing in the mid-fifties is very cool (interplay of light and shadow, action sequences, camera angles), and the story overall is tense and enveloping, altho on final consideration the plot was thin.
I liked it a lot; this is a flawed noir movie that could've been a ton better with better editing and a different actor for Marlowe (he's way too clean + handsome), but it was an easy watch with great shots and many scenes that just sucked me in.
It's impressive that the third installment in the Knives Out series manages to stay fresh and different, but they do manage, through a clever combination of emotional and mystery related tricks, and I really appreciated it - oh and also Daniel Craig has really grown into the role.
I stupidly read these 9 books a bit out of order (don't make my mistake) so this is the last of the 9 novels of Abercrombie's First Law series, and I loved it, and I guess it's a little long-winded but nonetheless a wonderful story full of that trademark of his writing - wherein multiple character-driven developments intersect to create a marvelous moment, in a way that feels totally natural and quite surprising at the same time.
I'm so predisposed to love this flick, considering the actors (Plaza), the director (Coen), the style (funny and violent), the subject (detective noir) - like the movie was made for me! - but the end spins totally out of control, has no style or grace, and looking back overall this movie lacks the exposition and character development that would've brought off any kind of ending at all.
Really cool use of film footage to create a new film, goes way into depth on Los Angeles as city and character and backdrop and cultural phenomenon, sort of wasted on me since I've never been there, but I liked the narrator's voice.
Too stressful for me; too many normal people doing stupid things and getting into trouble; I like to watch smart people do smart things and still get into trouble.
I appreciate this Swedish film for its uniqueness, both in story (never quite seen a fairy tale concept treated quite like this) and in effects / setting / makeup (you have to watch it to understand), and while the plot sort of left the rails a bit at the end, I am really glad I watched it.
This charming novella pulls in all of DeWitt’s classic themes and subjects - language, wealth, fabrics/tailoring, and clever youth.
Flawless storytelling in Lord Grimdark’s fifth entry of his fantasy epic, just superbly well done and crucial to the overall development of the series - I wish I had read these in order.
On my second read through this early essay collection by one of my favorite authors I’m struck with how much fun the travel writing is and how deep the cultural critiques are and how both types of essay mix elements of each other in each.
Either John Leguizamo is bad now or this director doesn't understand why he's great… might be both.